England suffered one of the greatest cricketing upsets when they were
humiliated by the part-time cricketers of Holland on the opening day of the
World Twenty20.

They were beaten by six wickets on Friday as a frantic finale saw the Dutch scramble the winning runs off an overthrow from the final ball of the match. It capped a dreadful day for the hosts at Lord’s with the opening ceremony washed out and Kevin Pietersen, England’s best player, suffering an achilles injury which threatens to spoil his Ashes summer.

England must now beat Pakistan in their final Group B match at The Oval on Sunday to have any hope of avoiding an embarrassing exit that would see them knocked out before the end of the first weekend of the tournament.

“It is pretty hard to take,” said Paul Collingwood, the England captain. “We had opportunities to win the game but we didn’t take them and we were beaten by the better side. Their batting did surprise us. It seemed that every batsman who came out scored boundaries from ball one. They had lots of belief. We have got to play a hell of a lot better on Sunday.”

England’s lack of firepower in the second half of their innings was the main reason for their disastrous defeat. They scored only 73 in the final 10 overs, having reached halfway at 89 without loss.

Holland captain Jeroen Smits described it as the greatest day in Dutch cricketing history as his team held their nerve to score seven off the final over. “Twenty20 is all about momentum and the momentum was ours after England’s last ten overs,” he said.

England will be pushing for Pietersen to be fit on Sunday but wary of wrecking his recovery with the first Ashes Test only five weeks away. Mystery surrounds the cause of the problem and his injury will reopen the debate about allowing Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff to play in the Indian Premier League.